3,500 EU nationals were wrongly told they could vote in EU referendum after IT blunder

Nearly 3,500 EU nationals were wrongly sent polling cards and postal votes for the referendum because of a computer glitch, the electoral commission has admitted.

The commission, which is overseeing the referendum, claimed earlier this week that only a "small number" of people had been wrongly told they could vote.

However it yesterday disclosed that 3,462 people EU nationals had been told they are entitled to vote, and admitted that the number is likely to rise.

The commission is still waiting for confirmation from six other local authorities to establish if they were affected by the problem.

It comes after Iain Duncan Smith, the eurosceptic former Work and Pensions Secretary, said in a letter to the Prime Minister that the error could have "profound" implications for the outcome of the referendum.

He suggested that the Electoral Commission had "abdicated all responsibility for this highly concerning breach of the law" and accused it of implementing "lax" protections.

The issue emerged on Wednesday after reports that some Poles and Germans living in Britain had been wrongly sent polling cards and postal votes.

At the time the Electoral Commission insisted that all voters would be checked against registers to ensure they were eligible but made no mention of any problems.

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However yesterday a leaked email revealed that the Electoral Commission was aware that here was a major issue and had already taken steps to try to fix it.

The leaked email disclosed that counting officers had been told that a problem with software provided by supplier Xpress meant some EU citizens had been wrongly counted as eligble to vote.

The email said Xpress was adding a patch to fix the software, adding: "The patch will cancel any postal votes that have been wrongly issued to electors and ensure that any electors whose G marker [indicating EU citizen] wasn't originally recorded are not included in polling station registers.

"In addition, they have also issued a letter which will be generated for everyone who wrongly received a poll card or postal vote explaining what has happened and that they will not be able to vote at the referendum."

Mr Duncan Smith and Bernard Jenkin, a senior Conservative MP, raised concerns after being contacted by leave supporters. EU nationals, with the exception of citizens from Ireland, Cyprus and Malta, are barred from voting in the referendum.

Mr Duncan Smith said: "We believe the British public will be as shocked as we are to discover that the integrity of the franchise for this long-awaited referendum with profound consequences for the future of our nation is being protected in such a lax manner.

"It is not good enough to expect people to report their friends, family or neighbours to the police if they believe they have been sent a polling card in error.

"Many of these people will have applied for a vote in good faith for one of the other elections in which they are entitled to vote and could make the honest mistake of casting a vote in this referendum illegally."

The Electoral Commission last night admitted that there had been a problem with classification of voter nationality that meant some EU nationals had been sent postal votes and polling cards.

It said Xpress, an electoral software supplier to a number of councils, had confirmed that nationality may not have been set correctly for some voters.

In a letter to Mr Duncan Smith it said: "We also became aware late yesterday afternoon that there has been an issue with elections software used by a number of local authorities in England and Wales that has meant that a small number of EU citizens have mistakenly received poll cards and, in some instances, postal votes."

It said that the software problem has been resolved and that any postal votes which have been issued to EU nationals will be cancelled.